Last week I taught a course called Creative Writing Using Constraints, aka the Oulipo, or workshop of potential literature.
The evaluations were mostly positive (see below), although one person wrote that they’d have liked more writing exercises. Wouldn’t we all? But given that the course was, in effect, just over four and a half hours long, each intro to an exercise takes around ten minutes, an exercise itself takes perhaps 15 minutes, and the subsequent discussion lasts between fifteen and 30 minutes, I don’t see how more could have been squeezed in. I do believe the discussion, involving as it does learning from others on the course, is crucial. We got through four or five techniques in depth, and touched on several more. Still, whoever it was who wrote that gave me high marks for things like knowledge, class management, and all that.
I think evaluations are very odd devices to be honest. Someone once “marked me down” on her evaluation of a one day course I was running on the grounds that the traffic was terrible. I pointed out to her that I wasn’t in charge of local traffic conditions and that she should complain to the council. Mind you, what can you expect, when someone who was inspecting a training session I was running told me that it wasn’t as good as it could have been because she had difficulty finding a parking place. I asked her why she thought that was my responsibility and what it had to do with my competence in running the session. She was unable to answer.
Assessment is always tricky, because you can quite easily end up assessing something other than the thing you think you’re assessing. For example, one of the things that exams test is the ability to perform well in exams.
In a slightly differtent context, when I’m practising the sax at home it often goes quite well. But as soon as I’m called upon in the sax lesson to toot my horn while everyone listens, it is liable to go to pot. Either I play the wrong notes altogether or the right notes in the wrong order (cf Eric Morecambe), or the right notes cacophonously. So what’s being tested at least partly is my the state of my nerves. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Here are those evaluations I mentioned:
“Thanks for everything Terry, a truly enjoyable day
Terry, thank you for a learning experience which surpassed my already-high expectations! The course was superb: the atmosphere in the classroom was welcoming and friendly, the resources were excellent, and although in advance of the course I had felt nervous about the prospects of both working in collaboration with other students and sharing my own thoughts and work, these in fact proved to be the aspects of the course which I enjoyed the most! I felt supported throughout, and learned a great deal about writing with constraints. I’m looking forward to putting what I learned into practice in my own writing projects. I can’t wait to take another course with you - thank you, Terry!
Friendly, knowledgeable ”
If you're devastated at having missed that course, you might be interested in my Writing for Blogs course. It's running in July and November. Even if you write somewhere that is not a blog in the traditional sense of the term (like Substack), you will still, I'm sure, find plenty to boost your confidence and skills.